I have very recently acquired the T26 Pershing, following a painless and enjoyable grind in the preceding T20: With about 30 battles out of the way, I'm really struggling. Any general advice for how to play this thing? Beyond "remember how to play the T20?", if there is indeed more to playing using this vehicle effectively. Recommendations for equipment (besides gun rammer) would also be nice.

I have very recently acquired the T26 Pershing, following a painless and enjoyable grind in the preceding T20: With about 30 battles out of the way, I'm really struggling. Any general advice for how to play this thing? Beyond "remember how to play the T20?", if there is indeed more to playing using this vehicle effectively. Recommendations for equipment (besides gun rammer) would also be nice.

I almost want to say "forget how you played the T20." The T20 fairly mobile with a better than average alpha gun for its tier MT, but no armor anywhere. The M26 Pershing is not especially mobile and the 90mm is certainly not special in alpha - nor pen, although the APCR is has good pen.

But it has a fairly good turret. So if you can hide most of your tank, using the ground as cover - which is a NATO tank thing you should know by now, you can find many places put out shots in relative safety with some of the best view range at tier 8.

The Pershing is the first of the true American mediums, the first of a truly unique line of tanks. Being as quirky as they are, it takes a while to get into the rhythm of things. You can tell I like them a lot.

In the Pershing, you must abuse that turret armor like WG abuses the wallets of old men. You magnetize to ridges, and avoid things you can't snapshot with your tier 9 gun handling. Unless you have gold. Then you can snapshot most things I guess because lol 268 APCR. You always go to the medium flank, unless there is no medium flank, because high-pen heavies and TDs will pen your turret with standard. You have no DPM, so you trade shots. You (almost) never push aggressively, because you are so slow you get caught out in the open. Stay with your team, and tank shots for them when needed. The Pershing is only the trial version of the full game. You probably won't like it much, but it's a taste of what's to come.

I too struggled with the M26 for a time when I first went up the American medium line. Most of the issues come from some tough matchmaking, a problematic stock grind and a lack of specialization. I'll go over each of these points for you and how to resolve each one.

Matchmaking- The M26 gets the rather lousy end of the stick in terms of matchmaking, especially nowadays. 3-5-7 template usually pits you against tanks like the Bat Chat and E100, both of which can delete you pretty easily. Like the above users mention, staying with allies is essential. You are, when bottom tier, mainly a support tank with some pretty good soft stats on traverse speeds and gun handling. So use that to take more shots on the move or while peek-a-booming around corners or over ridges. Against higher-tier mediums, your top gun is actually pretty decent against most tanks save the Russians and the E50/E50M. In those cases, aim for the tracks and set them up for your big boys to handle. Your RoF isn't good enough to brawl, so you need to play almost a delaying action role versus higher tier enemies. Lower tier games, you can get away with bullying nearly any tier 6 or 7, but watch for the high RoF Cromwells or auto-loading lights. If they connect, you'll find your hp draining fast, due to being out-traded. Overall, the M26 either is a 2nd-line medium or sniper when out-gunned or its a capable top tier against other, equal tier tanks. Know their disadvanatges, and get in situations where you're flexibility puts you on top (i.e you'll give German meds problems brawling and keeping Russian meds at range).

Stock- Until you get the top turret and gun, you are essentially a weaker T25 Pilot (a mediocre med tank with amazing soft stats). The top turret is fairly good but unreliable at bottom tiers, so keep that in mind. Also, the 400m base view range is lovely if you decide to set up behind the frontline. The top gun, while lacking RoF, can hurt actually anything it comes across. It has the same gold pen as an M48 Patton's standard (268mm), which is super useful. Most tier 8 meds pack around 240-250mm with gold, which struggles against tough targets. With proper knowledge, the gun and turret joined make the tank a great ridge-line warrior, as long as you aren't squaring off versus Tier 10 TD's.

Specialization- As I mentioned earlier, the Persh is a "jack-of-all, master-of-none" medium that is somewhat different from the rest of the line. The Shermans have RoF, the T20 has a "punchy" gun (not anymore since 240 alpha is the Tier 7 norm) and decent camo, and the M46 and M48 Pattons have shocking RoF with good turrets and view range. And then there is the M26, with decent parameters but no real stand-out traits save the above average gun-handling present in many American meds. This makes it not great at any one component of the game like sniping, brawling, peek-a-booming, etc. However, it is far from BAD in any of these components as well! By not being great in 1 category, but good in nearly every category, you can 1-up specialist tanks that are more like one-trick ponies. Brits and German meds have subpar RoF, Russian and Chinese tanks meds have limited gun depression, so get in situations awkward for your enemies!

All in all, this tank is becoming a new keeper (once I get the stats up XD) that I never would have thought otherwise. It's got everything you need to perform adequately in any scenario, but to be great if you know your enemies. As Sun Tzu said, "If you know yourself and your enemy, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles."